Off to Marysville today, stopped to get gas at Warburton it was busy, heaps of bike out its the first nice day after a week of rain, had to wait for these guys to fill up before i could get near the pump.

The Acheron Way, The tar ends after a few kms

Huge trees round here

It looks warm but its 8°C, cold hands

The Acheron River

Starting to climb up towards Mt Strictland

This area was burnt out as well on Black Saturday 2009

its midday and still foggy round Melbourne

Looking north toward the Cathedral Range

Keppel Lookout

Marysville

On Black Saturday 7 February 2009 fires started at 2:55 pm, while Victoria Police twice told the Royal Commission that it commenced at "about 2.30 pm". It burned southeast across the Black Range, parallel to the Kilmore fire, towards Narbethong. reported flame heights of at least 100 metres as the fire traversed the Black Range. At Narbethong, it destroyed 95 per cent of the town's houses.<sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference">[</sup>When the southerly change struck, it swept towards the town of Marysville.
Late in the afternoon of 7 February, residents had anticipated that the fire front would bypass Marysville.<sup id="cite_ref-abc_wiped_out_48-1" class="reference"></sup> At about 5:00 pm, power was lost to the town. Around 5:30 pm, the wind died away, however, minutes later it returned from a different direction, bringing the fire up the valley with it.<sup id="cite_ref-australian_razed_township_49-0" class="reference"></sup>
Afterwards, a police sergeant said that the main street in Marysville had been destroyed: "The motel at one end of it partially exists. The bakery has survived. Don't ask me how. Everything else is just nuked."<sup id="cite_ref-age_sickening_wait_50-0" class="reference"></sup> Reports on 11 February estimated that around 100 of the town's population of approximately 500 had believed to have perished, and that only "a dozen" buildings were left. Premier Brumby described the situation: "There's no activity, there's no people, there's no buildings, there's no birds, there's no animals, everything's just gone. So the fatality rate will be very high."<sup id="cite_ref-marysville-one-in-five_51-0" class="reference"></sup>
Eventually 34 fatalities were confirmed in the Marysville area, with all but 14 of over 400 buildings destroyed.

It taking a while but its getting rebuilt. Its was always a popular bike stop on a big loop that takes in 2 brilliant sections of twistys, the Blacks Spur and Refton Spur.

A little trail off the Lady Talbot Drive

The Taggery river

This is a fire break on the east side of the town, pity the fire came from the west

Back home again via the Acheron Way, I am sticking with the 606's they worked great today, approx 200km on tar gravel, mud

Off to Marysville today, stopped to get gas at Warburton it was busy, heaps of bike out its the first nice day after a week of rain, had to wait for these guys to fill up before i could get near the pump.

These guys showed up and had a crack, the patrol made it ...just, we where waiting for the explosion, it hovered there for what felt like an eternity before it found a tiny sliver of grip and pulled out

The disco wasn't so lucky

great view, I wanted to get to the top of that hill, but our government put randomly space fences across sections, to protect us from having to much enjoyment

Went back the other way .....yep fenced

mmmm fence

yay an open bit

but not for long

So feeling a bit frustrated we hit the slab back home

Coldstream airport, you can come here and throw yourself out of a perfectly functional aircraft

not a bad little ride, but for some reason it left me a little frustrated with some restrictions that are placed on riders around here, apparently it is illegal to ride singletrack in the state Victoria and I have heard of areas getting closed off permanently ...but enough of my bitching.

Been a while since I posted here, In May I snapped my PCL in my knee after a fall on a tricky climb so it has curtailed my dirt riding a bit so in the mean time while I got my knee back in shape I bought a road bike, picked up 2000 Kawasaki ZZR600.

So over New Years Eve I did a trip I have been wanting to do for a long time, a 1000K loop through the Victorian high country started with Ash (SV650) and Kev (VStrom)

Morning start out of Melbourne one of the guys forgets his new rego sticker so back he goes

Stopped in Eildon for a coffee a local came up and started a chat, turns out he is just out of jail

next stage was to Jameson - Mansfield - Whitfield - a beautiful twisty road with a side trip down a dirt road to Powers lookout

Road bikes handle better on dirt than I thought
s

We met up with Kevs brother Rolf(GS1100) near Rosewhite

Stopped for the night at the Snowline inn in Harrietville they let you park your bikes right at the door

Next morning was pristine, some say the Hotham rd is the best bike ride in the state I agree, stayed up on the summit for an hour before dropping into the next valley for breakfast in Omeo

after Omeo it a long twisty ride following the river into Gippsland then turn east to head back to Melbourne through Nojee

Circumstances forced me to get off my arse and hit the dirt after a long time off, my knee has come good and the ZZR600 got ran into so its off the road for the moment. I was on a road ride, waiting on the side of the road for the group to catch up and a learner rider misjudged and slammed me from behind, the bike ended up on the deck, $3K damage, luckly i'm insured.
So its back to old faithful.

This week I revisting an old trail I did a couple of years back

Unfortunately the locals don't like bikes, most of it is closed off, sign off the times round here.
did find some open tracks that got me north to Toolangi and a beautiful area called Murrindindi
Murrindindi Magic

Local farm using immigrant workers, I bet if I came in waving a badge and asking for visa's they would run to the hills

pushed through to Mt St Lennard, huge stands of Mountain Ash
Always reminded of the fire threat around here

Nice to be on dirt again with the added bonus of my knee holding up to a bit of punishment